'The Bourne Supremacy' is a killer of a thriller sequel

Matt Damon is an unlikely star. A blandly handsome young leading man, his pleasant screen personality lacks any electricity and his underacting style leaves many of his characters empty vessels.

MOVIE REVIEW

THE BOURNE SUPREMACY

DIRECTOR: Paul Greengrass

CAST: Matt Damon, Joan Allen,

Franka Potente, Brian Cox, Julia Stiles

RUNNING TIME: 108 minutes

RATING: PG-13 for violence and intense action, and for brief language

WHERE: Bella Bottega 11, Cinema 17, Crossroads 8, East Valley 13, Everett 9, Factoria, Galleria 11, Gateway 8, Grand Cinemas, Issaquah 9, Kirkland Parkplace 6, Longston Place 14, Majestic Bay, Marysville Cinema 14, Meridian 16, Metro, Monroe 12, Mountlake 9, North Bend, Oak Tree, Parkway Plaza 12, Valley Drive-In, Woodinville 12

GRADE: B+

In other words, he's perfect as Jason Bourne, a tormented hero with a killer inside him who simply wants a normal life. When danger rears its lethal head, survival instincts and assassin reflexes take over and the easygoing guy disappears and a coldly ruthless CIA superagent takes his place.

A superior summer action-movie sequel in every sense of the word, "The Bourne Supremacy" picks up where "The Bourne Identity" left off. Amnesiac Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) has "dropped of the grid" to start a new life with his girlfriend (Franka Potente), but two years later he's still haunted by nightmares of a violent past.

His fantasy of a peaceful life is shattered when he's framed for murder and targeted by a rival assassin who makes one mistake: He lets Bourne survive. Bourne takes the fight back to the CIA in a globe-hopping hunt that pits him against the sharp, incorruptible agent Landy (Joan Allen) and Bourne's old nemesis, the secretive Abbott (Brian Cox), who is determined to see Bourne dead.

Paul Greengrass, the British social realist director most famous for his documentarylike re-creation of the 1972 Irish civil rights march turned massacre, "Bloody Sunday," is an unusual and ultimately inspired choice to helm the action-movie blockbuster. His style is closer to "The French Connection" than to the unreal spectacles of modern special-effects thrillers and his overdrive pacing never misses a beat.

Shooting almost exclusively with a handheld camera that peers into every scene like a fascinated eavesdropper and picks up every telling detail, he directs it all up close and intimate. Whether it's a conversation, an armed standoff or a careening car chase, he brings a visceral immediacy to every scene. You can almost feel every blow that Bourne endures.

"The Bourne Supremacy" delivers the expected adrenaline-driven thrills with a fresh eye and a refreshing attitude, and Greengrass grounds it in a journey of self-discovery and redemption that, for all of its pulp origins, actually works. It's unusual to really care about what happens to a summer-movie superman.

Sean Axmaker is a movie reviewer and freelance film writer based in Seattle. He can be reached via e-mail at seanax@hotmail.com.